Let’s Gowex: La Charada Pescanova (a Pescanovan Charade)

Gotham City Research initiates coverage on Let’s Gowex SA, with a price target of € 0.00/share (100% downside)

SUMMARY OF OPINIONS:

• Gowex shares are worth €0.00 per share.

• Over 90% of Gowex’s reported revenues do not exist. We estimate GOW’s actual revenues to be <€10 million.

• The shares will be suspended, just as Pescanova’s shares were suspended.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:

• Gowex’s actual Wireless revenues are at most 10% of what GOW reports in its financial statements.

• GOW’s Hotspot network it owns or manages is ~5K in size. CEO told us 100K+ & JBCapitalMarkets estimates 35K.

• GOW’s audit fee is €40,000, which makes sense if Gowex’s actual revenues are only 5%-10% of reported revenue.

• 90% of Telecom revenue originated from undisclosed related parties, tied to GOW CFO & an early investor. We have evidence Gowex’s largest customer was really itself.

• Gowex Telecom (i.e. Iber-x) website has not been updated in years. It appears to be no longer in business.

• Gowex told some investors that New York City was paying them €7.5 million. GOW told us €2 million. The real number is <€200,000, according to New York City.

• Gowex does not publicly disclose basic metrics, such as hotspot count or wireless revenue segment details.

• The head of investor relations is the CEO’s wife. She signed off on GOW’s annual reports.

• The June 5th MallPlaza press release (in English) makes demonstrably false claims. The same press release in the native Spanish omits the false claims.

• GOW lied to the European Union’s Transparency Register, claiming it spent over €50 mm in political contributions.

• CEO Jenaro Garcia was a Director of Advanced Refractive Technologies, a penny stock fraud whose shares were revoked by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

• GOW’s private market valuation is only €0.14 per share, based on Arqiva’s acquisition valuation.